Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

In response to the shadow minister: in assessing what jobs are going to be gained and what jobs are going to be lost, you have to make a whole series of assumptions, and there is a great deal of room for variations in what those assumptions will be. For instance, I have heard members opposite talking about their being only 70 jobs left in Australian shipping as a result of this legislation. Clearly, that is absurd. The reality is that it in some cases there will be Australians on vessels that are not on vessels under the existing regime and that in other places there will be changes, in registration et cetera, that will have some impact.

While we are quoting, can I go to the regulatory impact statement, which I think makes the most telling comment of all in relation to this legislation. It says that the net economic benefit over 20 years from the adoption of this option will be of the order of $667 million. In other words, the gains to the Australian economy are very, very substantial indeed. They will come not just from within the shipping industry itself but because of the jobs that will not be lost on the Australian mainland because our shipping rates are uncompetitive. They will come from industry that is attracted to operate in Australia because we have a more competitive industry. The net employment situation is likely to be beneficial to our country, because we will not be losing as many jobs in this country from manufacturing and from a whole range of key industries that simply cannot compete with imported products, because of the cost of shipping. There are many examples, which were taken to the Senate and which have been reported all over the place, about Australian commodities not being able to compete with imports because of the cost of domestic shipping. We have classic stories, like it being cheaper to bring sugar from Thailand to Melbourne than to bring it from Mackay to Melbourne and it becoming cheaper to bring cement direct from China rather than to move it between one Australian port and another. That is costing jobs on the mainland. It means we cannot make cement and that our sugar producers do not have access to markets that otherwise they would have access to. All of that has to be taken into account in making assessments about what the best thing is for our national economy.

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